Varieties of Pantheism

Pantheism is not a monolithic creed. There have been many varieties of
pantheism, arising inside and outside of traditional religions.

Pantheists can be divided along several axes, according to how their view
of God's relationship with the universe, and their attitude to the material
world.

Pantheists and panentheists

One line of division concerns how God relates to the material world.

Those who believe he is identical with the universe, co-substantial, and
co-extensive in time and space, are pure pantheists. They may
differ among themselves as to whether the underlying substance is essentially
material (scientific pantheism) or spiritual, and whether the totality
has a mind or goal greater than or different from the sum of its parts.

Those who believe God is present in matter and the cosmos, but also
extends beyond it, in ways that are beyond our understanding, are termed
panentheists.(2) Most Christian and
Islamic exponents have been panentheists. By contrast most Greek and Roman
thinkers (other than the followers of Plato) were pantheists.

The distinction between these two groups may seem a fine theoretical
one - especially since panentheists say virtually nothing about that part of
their God which extends beyond the cosmos. Indeed they often make a point of
this inability to emphasize God's mystery. But there is an important
difference in the value attached to the earth and the cosmos. A universe and a
nature that is only part of God is less awesome and less crucial in itself,
than one which is the totality of God. The panentheist focusses his or her
worship on God in the mind. The pantheist focusses it on nature and the
skies.

World-affirmers and world-denyers

Another division, more important for the way in which life is
lived, concerns how the real physical world and the human body is viewed.

World-affirming pantheists believe that the physical world of nature and
of the human body are essentially good. Generally they have positive attitudes
to nature and sex.

World-denying pantheists devalue the real world and the body. Some of
them believe that these are mere illusions projected onto an underlying
emptiness or fullness. These tend to include many Hindu and Buddhist
pantheists, plus the Greek Eleatics.

Others accept that matter is real enough, but believe that it is
inferior - either a formless and chaotic medium, or the creation of evil and
darkness. This view is common in the Christian tradition before the
Renaissance.

World-denying pantheisms attach little importance to nature, or to
physical health, and very often regard sex as the ultimate distraction from
God. In general they originated in times of mass trauma - widespread warfare,
famine, or epidemic - with massive mortality rates. In these situations, world
negation becomes an adaptive response, allowing people to survive in an
intolerable situation.

In normal times, however, these attitudes are maladaptive. They work
against all types of political, social and environmental action to improve the
situation.

World-believers and world-disbelievers.

The final major dichotomy is between those who accept that
the material world is real, and those who believe it is an illusion.

Not all the world-disbelievers reject or despise the material world. Many
Chinese and Japanese Buddhists accept that it has a kind of conditional
reality, and should be enjoyed in its transient beauty.

World-disbelief is self-destructive or self-contradictory. To be strictly
consistent, the philosopher who discovered this truth should forthwith stop
eating, drinking, or preaching his discovery, and should simply lie immobile
until dead. Since few philosophers take this course of action, it must be
assumed that few of them really believe their own doctrines.

Monists and dualists.

Another distinction is between monistic and dualistic
pantheisms.

Dualists believe that there are two types of substance or principle in the
universe. Usually these two are matter; and mind, soul or spirit. Most
dualists see some tension between the two principles. This tension may be
cooperative and creative - as in the case of world-affirming panentheists. Or
the tension may be full of conflict: the spirit can only achieve its aims by
transcending or suppressing the body.

By contrast, monists believe that there is only a single type of substance
in the universe. Matter/energy is usually the one substance, since this is the
one we can all perceive.

Idealists like Mahayana Buddhists or Greek Eleatics are often termed
monists. Certainly they believe that there is only one substance in the
universe, and that substance is essentially mental in character. However, they
cannot ignore the world of phenomena which everyone, including them, has to
deal with every day. Indeed they have to spend a great deal of effort
explaining to a healthily sceptical audeince why the unreal real world appears
to exist, why it is the same for all of us, and so on. Hence idealists deal
with and discuss two realities: the phenomenal, "illusory" reality which most
people call real, and a more "real" reality accessible only through and to the
mind. That is why idealists are categorized here as dualists.

1. Since the term panentheism is not widely known, for the
sake of simplicity and wider understanding I use the term pantheism to cover
all types of belief that God is everywhere in the universe or nature.Back.

Varieties of Pantheism: A visual guide

World-affirming pantheisms.

TYPE OF PANTHEISM

CENTRAL
BELIEFS

EXAMPLES

Nature-worship

Non-systematic:
Nature evokes religious feelings of awe and belonging.
May include specific divinities.

SCIENTIFIC PANTHEISM

is the belief that the universe and
nature are divine.
It fuses religion and science, and concern for humans with concern for
nature.
It provides the most realistic concept of life after death,
and the most
solid basis for environmental ethics.
It is a religion that requires no faith other than common sense, no
revelation other than open eyes and a mind open to evidence, no guru other
than your own self.
For an outline, see
Basic principles of scientific pantheism.Top.

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